Ellie receives chemo every day at home. She receives another chemo drug every Tuesday at home. She gets an antibiotic every weekend. We have an entire arsenal of other medicines to give her to counteract side effects of her drugs. Every four weeks she goes to the hospital for another chemo drug given through her port. (Every third hospital visit she receives yet another chemo drug via a lumbar puncture into her spinal fluid.) Every time a hospital visit occurs, she begins a five day pulse of steroids. Those weeks are always very difficult for Ellie.
We are in one of those weeks right now. Her body is so tired. It is hard to get a 4 year old to slow down. These weeks are filled with power struggles and mood swings. Yesterday was terrible. Today, I have embraced the cuddling and already she is calmer. As a result of forcing her to calm down, she ended up falling asleep at 9:30am.
Overall, Ellie is in a good place considering her diagnosis. But that doesn’t mean that it still isn’t hard. The countdown is definitely on. Only 7-8 more months of treatments, which means only 7-8 more weeks like this.
Thank you for your continued prayers for Ellie and our family.
